Drawn to the magic of Tolkien

Tolkien's working life seems to be generating
almost as much interest as his books.Paul Daley reports on a growing legend.

Just about any day, Oxford's Eagle and Child pub is likely to be frequented by some of the more eccentric residents of - and visitors to - the ancient university town.

Outside this 353-year-old watering hole there is a very obvious clue to its attraction for Middle-earthers: on the wooden sign, a soaring eagle clutches a swaddled baby. All those familiar with the works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien know that his characters are sometimes rescued by eagles.

Those who are not familiar with such works but who happen across this pubv will be struck by the tone of conversation. This is where literary figures such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis drank in the 1940s, in a group called the Inklings.

Today, over pints of bitter and wads of pipe tobacco, the talk is of Middle-earth, monsters and ents, hobbits and orcs.

Every day, Oxford attracts dozens of people from around the world who are following the trail of J.R.R.Tolkien. They want to see the seven houses in which he lived and worked while professor of English. They want to soak in the atmosphere of the Bodleian Library, where he pored over the Old English dictionary, and the halls where he studied as an undergraduate at Exeter College.");document.write("

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The recent release of The Two Towers, the second movie of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, has sparked even greater interest in Taruithorn, Tolkien's elvish name for Oxford, while giving him stronger recognition as the greatest modern proponent of fantasy literature.

"They can be an odd lot ... but they're harmless and they just want an opportunity to feel close to their idol," says one regular drinker at The Eagle, who is not a Tolkien devotee. "There are certainly more and more of them since the films."

Indeed, New Zealand-born director Peter Jackson's first two movies in the trilogy, The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers, have introduced a new generation of younger fans to Tolkien's works and re-acquainted others who read the books as children.

Tolkien's work has always attracted an eccentric, nerd-ish following. But the movies have drawn a new, mainstream focus to his writings and made them even more pertinent for academics.

Any book that bears his
name is almost
guaranteed success.

Britain's enduring fascination with Middle-earth is obvious in the bestseller lists. Last week in the Sunday Times, for example, The Return Of The King, the final instalment in the grandly epic tale, was seventh, after 16 weeks in the paperback fiction top 10.

On September 2 this year, Tolkien will have been dead for 30 years. But today his trilogy and some of his lesser-known works are more popular with the reading public than when they were first published.

Post-graduate and undergraduate academic interest in Tolkien continues to thrive and, unsurprisingly, so do studies of mediaeval Anglo-Saxon languages.

Michael Drout, a 34-year-old mediaeval language expert and Professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, is considered one of the most exciting - and lucky - academics studying Tolkien.

In 1996, while examining a dissertation on tradition and inheritance in Anglo-Saxon texts, he visited the Bodleian to study Tolkien's notes for his famous 1936 lecture series, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.

At the bottom of the box of Tolkien's writings Professor Drout had expected to find a few pages of notes in the author's spidery handwriting.

Instead, he hit the academic jackpot; hidden underneath some previously published works were about 200 hand-written pages recording Tolkien's interpretation of the great Anglo-Saxon poem.

After extensive negotiations with lawyers representing the Tolkien family's estate, Professor Drout was allowed to publish the new material in Beowulf and the Critics, a book that is perhaps the most eagerly awaited English academic text of the year.

Professor Drout, who was introduced to Tolkien when his father read The Lord of the Rings to him as a child, is also working on the world's most comprehensive database of works about the Oxford professor and author. He is also setting up Tolkien Studies, a yearly journal dedicated to the best academic pursuits of Tolkien ... and reading Tolkien to his young daughter.

Like Professor Drout, Michael Woodcock spent seven years tracing the footsteps of Tolkien, his literary hero. Dr Woodcock, who for seven years was a lecturer in Renaissance literature at Oxford, says the study of Tolkien - and his popularity among uncommitted readers - is increasing.

"It was a wonderful experience walking in his footsteps because my interest, like Tolkien's, is in philology (the study of ancient language). So it's absolutely wonderful to see where he sat in front of the dictionary, and to see where he lived and worked," he says.

Most British universities now have active Tolkien societies, which arrange for experts to talk to members about their hero.

Oxford University's Tolkien Society, which has undergraduate and post-graduate members, has the natural advantage of being able to trace the master's steps underneath the dreaming spires.

Meanwhile, the Oxford-based Tolkien Estate, which is managed by solicitors Manches and Co., has to deal with an ever-increasing volume of requests to approve merchandise, literary, artistic and academic projects under Tolkien's name.

So, what of the Tolkien pilgrims visiting the Eagle and Child?

"Yes, they do have that reputation for eccentricity," Dr Woodcock, himself a former regular, politely says.

"And there is something delightful about that whole smoking and drinking world of Middle-earth - that sense of heartiness and having a good time because tomorrow it could all end, tomorrow something terrible could happen."